Recently, rechargeable batteries have found their way into electric vehicle batteries as well as portable telephones and notebook PCs. Several techniques for achieving sufficient electronic conductivity by making electrodes only from an active material have been proposed in these batteries. For example, patent document 1 has achieved electrodes with sufficient electronic conductivity having a relative density ranging from 50 to 80% in the following manner. That is, fired powder as an active material is converted into slurry by adding forming additives, plasticizer, dispersing agent and solvent to the fired powder. The slurry is applied to a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film by a doctor blade method, followed by punching to a predetermined size and heat treatment.